Jasper melted from the doorway and the party dispersed.
Octavia Crawley and Mr. Needham were the first to arrive. Sir Harry expressed the hope that the walk in the dark had not been unpleasant. Octavia said there was a moon and she had a torch and Tommy had only stumbled once, but luckily she was holding his arm, so he had not fallen down. Mr. Needham looked as it he were undecided between gratitude or hatred for unnecessary kindness, but controlled himself. Sir Harry, who had been looking forward to a pair of billing and cooing young lovers, was a little disappointed, but his soldier’s heart warmed to the young chaplain with an empty sleeve and he determined to pump him after dinner, by which phrase he meant, on the whole, that he hoped to find a sympathetic audience for his stories abou
